News tagged with optical physics


New plasma transistor could create sharper displays

New plasma transistor could create sharper displays

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Feb 04, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- By integrating a solid-state electron emitter and a microcavity plasma device, researchers at the University of Illinois have created a plasma transistor that could be used to make lighter, ...


K-State physics lab becoming a frontrunner in ultrafast laser research

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 28, 2008 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

For decades, the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory at Kansas State University has been known worldwide as a center for atomic collision physics using particle accelerators. Now, researchers at the lab are working toward making it ...





Search results for optical physics


Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows

Entropy alone creates complex crystals from simple shapes, study shows

Chemistry / Materials Science

created 7 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.


Life after silicon

Life after silicon: Using exotic materials to help microchips keep improving

Technology / Semiconductors

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The huge increases in the power and capacity of computers, cell phones and communications networks in the last 40 years have been the result of ever-shrinking silicon transistors. But silicon ...


RIT astronomer mines Spitzer Space Telescope data for massive starbursts

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Understanding the evolution of galaxies is one of the biggest questions confronting astronomers today. Looking at distant astronomical objects gives scientists important clues to the origins of the Milky Way Galaxy and other ...


Super cool atom thermometer

Super cool atom thermometer

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

As physicists strive to cool atoms down to ever more frigid temperatures, they face the daunting task of developing new, reliable ways of measuring these extreme lows. Now a team of physicists has devised ...


STPSat-1 successfully completes extended mission

STPSat-1 successfully completes extended mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The STPSat-1, built for the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) and operated by the DoD STP for the first year then transitioned to NRL for the last 16 months, was decommissioned on October ...


A Superbright Supernova That’s the First of Its Kind

A Superbright Supernova That’s the First of Its Kind

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (24) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- An extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, snagged in a search by a robotic telescope, turns out to be the first example of the kind of stars that first ...


A mathematical model of a simple circuit in a chicken brain raises fundamental questions about our understanding of neural circu

Mathematical model of a simple circuit in a chicken brain raises fundamental questions

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (28) | comments 17

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Web site Neuroanthropology asks visitors to complete this quote, "One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is ...". In addition to the typical facetious remarks, such as "so ...


All decked out: Networks of chitin filaments are integral components of diatom silica shells

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A whole microcosm of various bizarrely shaped life forms opens up when you look at diatoms, the primary component of ocean plankton, under a microscope. The regularly structured silica shells of these tiny ...


Nanoimaging in 3-D

Nanoimaging in 3-D

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- As technology shrinks ever smaller, interest in objects and devices on the nanoscale becomes more apparent. However, visualizing these objects in three dimensions comes with special challenges. ...


Scientists demonstrate multibeam, multi-functional lasers

Scientists demonstrate multibeam, multi-functional lasers

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

An international team of applied scientists from Harvard, Hamamatsu Photonics, and ETH Zürich have demonstrated compact, multibeam, and multi-wavelength lasers emitting in the invisible part of the light spectrum ...



List of search results for optical physics